Telephony service invocation using service descriptors

ABSTRACT

A method of providing telephony services can include receiving a request to query a subscriber information data store to determine service description information for a call. The service description information can specify at least one telephony service associated with a subscriber for use in processing the call. The method further can include querying the subscriber information data store to determine the service description information, receiving the service description information from the subscriber information data store, and providing the service description information to a telephony service node to implement a telephony service specified by the service description information with respect to the call.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of, and accordingly claims thebenefit from, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/324,894, now issuedU.S. Pat. No. ______, which was filed in the U.S. Patent and TrademarkOffice on Dec. 20, 2002.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Technical Field

This invention relates to the field of telephony and, more particularly,to providing telephony services to subscribers.

2. Description of the Related Art

The delivery of most telephony services and features is tied to thedirectory number of a calling party or a called party. In fact, nearlyall of the activities performed by a conventional telephony system,whether a circuit-switched telephone network such as the public switchedtelephone network (PSTN) or a packet-switched telephony system, arebased on such directory numbers or network addresses as may be the case.The dialed directory number can be referred to as the DNIS in referenceto directory number identification service, a service which identifiesfor a receiving party the number dialed by a calling party. Thedirectory number of the calling party can be referred to as an ANI inreference to automatic number identification, the service which providesthe receiving party with the directory number of the calling party.

When a calling party initiates a call to a receiving party, the DNIS andthe ANI can be used to authenticate the call. Authentication can includetasks such as finding the ANI in a list of authorized subscribers andensuring that the DNIS is valid. Taking another example, the switchingof calls to and from a subscriber also can be achieved through the useof the subscriber's directory number. That is, if a calling party placesa call to a receiving party, the call can be routed to the receivingparty based on an area code and/or an exchange code of the DNIS.

The reliance of conventional telephony systems on the DNIS and ANI notonly determines how features and services are to be implemented anddelivered, but also dictates the mode of operation of other portions ofthe telephony system. In consequence, services provided by conventionaltelephony systems are tightly linked to the DNIS and ANI. For example,billing, interactive voice response functions, call routing, callauthentication, and subscriber information retrieval are predicated uponthe DNIS and the ANI.

Given the mobile nature of today's society, however, providingsubscribers with telephony services according to the DNIS and/or the ANIcan have disadvantages. For example, as a subscriber moves from onelocation to another, the subscriber may utilize telephony equipmentassociated with a directory number and account that is different fromthat of the “mobile” subscriber. As a result, the subscriber can beblocked from accessing particular telephony services which typically areavailable to the subscriber when calling from a home or another numberused by that subscriber. Moreover, if a subscriber does access one ormore telephony services from a different number, for example whiletraveling, the account associated with the number from which thesubscriber has called typically is billed rather than the subscriber.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention disclosed herein provides a solution for activatingtelephony services for subscribers. The present invention can providetelephony services based upon identifiers which are associated withsubscriber information within a telephony data store. According to thepresent invention, telephony services can be provided to a subscriberfor a given call without relying upon a called number and/or a callingnumber. In consequence, the delivery of telephony services including,but not limited to, billing, call routing, call forwarding, voice mail,call redirect, and information retrieval can be predicated upon asubscriber identity rather than the called number or the calling number.

One aspect of the present invention can include a method of providingtelephony services. The method can include receiving a request to querya subscriber information data store to determine service descriptioninformation for a call. The service description information can specifyat least one telephony service associated with a subscriber for use inprocessing the call. The subscriber information data store can bequeried to determine the service description information.

The service description information can be received from the subscriberinformation data store. If additional items of subscriber informationare received from the subscriber information data store in relation tothe call, the service description information can be parsed from theadditional items of subscriber information. Accordingly, the servicedescription information can be provided to a telephony service node toimplement one or more telephony services specified by the servicedescription information with respect to the call.

The telephony service node can implement one or more telephony servicesspecified by the service description information without usingorigination point information or termination point information for thecall. Still, the method can include adding service descriptioninformation to a subscriber entry in the subscriber information datastore. For example, the service description information can be appendedto a subscriber name portion of the subscriber entry.

Within the telephony service node, the call can be received as well asthe associated service description information. The service descriptioninformation can be matched with at least one telephony service availablein the telephony service node for processing the call. Accordingly, thecall can be processed in accordance with the determined telephonyservice.

Another aspect of the present invention can include a method ofproviding telephony services in a telephony service node. The method caninclude receiving a call and associated service description information,wherein the service description information is determined from asubscriber information data store. The service description informationcan be matched with at least one telephony service available in thetelephony service node for processing the call. The call can beprocessed in accordance with the one or more determined telephonyservices. Thus, the telephony service node can implement the telephonyservices specified by the service description information without usingorigination point information or termination point information for thecall. Notably, the service description information can be added to asubscriber entry in the subscriber information data store. As noted, theservice description information can be appended to a subscriber nameportion of the subscriber entry.

Another aspect of the present invention can include a method ofproviding telephony services in a telephony service node includingreceiving a call and initiating a query to a subscriber information datastore to determine service description information for the call. Theservice description information can specify at least one telephonyservice associated with a subscriber for use in processing the call. Theservice description information can be received from the subscriberinformation data store. The service description information can bematched with at least one telephony service available in the telephonyservice node for processing the call. The call then can be processed inaccordance with the determined one or more telephony services.

As noted, the matching step can determine the telephony service forprocessing the call without reference to origination point informationor termination point information for the call. Additionally, the servicedescription information can be added to a subscriber entry in thesubscriber information data store by, for example, appending the servicedescription information to a subscriber name portion of the subscriberentry.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

There are shown in the drawings, embodiments which are presentlypreferred, it being understood, however, that the invention is notlimited to the precise arrangements and instrumentalities shown.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a telephony system inaccordance with the inventive arrangements disclosed herein.

FIG. 2 is an exemplary data entry for a subscriber typically foundwithin a subscriber information data store.

FIG. 3 is an exemplary data entry for a subscriber which can be storedwithin a subscriber information data store in accordance with thepresent invention.

FIG. 4 is an excerpt from an exemplary mapping of subscriber informationto telephony services in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating a method of call processingaccording to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The invention disclosed herein provides a method and apparatus foractivating telephony services for subscribers. More particularly, thepresent invention can provide telephony services based upon a servicedescriptor which can be associated with subscriber information within atelephony data store such as a Line Information Data Base (LIDB).Accordingly, telephony services can be provided to a subscriber for agiven call based upon the subscriber's identity without relying upontermination information such as the called number or address and/ororigination information such as the calling number or address.

FIG. 1 depicts a telephony system 100 in accordance with the inventivearrangements disclosed herein. The system 100 can be implemented as acircuit-switched telephony network such as the public switched telephonenetwork (PSTN). Accordingly, the system 100 can include various nodesproviding circuit-switched transfer of voice data and packet-switchedtransfer of signaling data. For example, a switching system 105 canprovide access to an originating device 110, which can be accessed by asubscriber to initiate a call. The telephony system 100 also can includeone or more signaling transfer points (not shown) for routing signalingdata, such as Signaling System 7 (SS7) information, between theswitching system 105 and other switching systems. A service controlpoint (SCP) 115 can provide an interface to databases and other dataretrieval services in the telephony system. The signaling transferpoints and the SCP 115, at least in part, form the signaling network inthe PSTN supporting call control functions such as call set up, callmaintenance, and call tear down.

The SCP 115 can provide an interface though which the LIDB 120 can bequeried. As should be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the LIDB120 can be maintained by a telephone carrier, for example at a centraloffice. The LIDB 120 can store information such as a service profile,name, address, credit card validation information, and the like forsubscribers. For example, the LIDB 120 can store caller identificationinformation necessary for the implementation of the “Caller ID”telephony service.

According to the present invention, the LIDB 120 can be provisioned, forexample via the administrative terminal 125, so that a servicedescriptor can be appended to subscriber names stored therein. Moreparticularly, a service descriptor which can be associated with one ormore telephony services can be added to the name field of subscriberentries within the LIDB 120. Accordingly, the subscriber, based upon thesubscriber identity, can be provided with one or more telephony serviceswhich are associated with the service descriptor rather than withorigination and/or termination information.

The gateway 130 can be communicatively linked to the switching system105 and provide an interface to the telephony service node 135. Thetelephony service node 135 can provide any of a variety of callprocessing functions. For example, the telephony service node 135 canprovide interactive voice response functions including dual tonemulti-frequency recognition, voice recognition, and text-to-speechprocessing. The telephony service node 135 further can provide othercall processing functions such as call routing, voice activated dialing,call forwarding, voice mail, call redirect, information retrieval, andthe like.

According to one aspect of the present invention, the telephony servicenode 135 can include a telephony application platform operating within apacket-switched network environment. The gateway 130 can provide aninterface between the circuit-switched network and the packet-switchednetwork for both telephony signaling data as well as voicecommunications. Accordingly, the gateway 130 can perform translationsbetween directory numbers and network addresses for connecting callswith various voice processing application services. Notably, thetelephony service node 135 can be included within a largerpacket-switched telephony network.

The telephony service node 135 also can be implemented as a programmablecircuit-switched call processing platform. In that case, the telephonyservice node 135 can be linked directly with the switching system 105(not shown). Accordingly, the examples disclosed herein have beenprovided for purposes of illustration only. As such, the presentinvention is not limited to the use of one particular type of telephonyservice node. Rather, the telephony service node 135 can be implementedand function within either a packet-switched or a circuit-switchedtelecommunications environment using suitable interface mechanisms tothe switching system 105.

In operation, a subscriber can originate a call with the switchingsystem 105 using the originating device 110. The call can be directed,that is the calling number or address can correspond to, an applicationprogram or extension within the telephony service node 135. Inprocessing the call, one or more call triggers associated with the callcan be identified within the switching system 105. The call trigger ortriggers can cause the switching system 105 to initiate a query to theSCP 115, which in turn can query the LIDB 120 for subscriberinformation. The LIDB 120 can search for subscriber informationcorresponding to the calling number of the call. The subscriberinformation, including the service descriptor, can be provided back tothe SCP 115, to the switching system 105, and on to the telephonyservice node 135 via the gateway 130. Accordingly, the telephony servicenode 135 can implement a call processing function and/or applicationindicated by the service descriptor.

Although the system of FIG. 1 was described largely within the contextof a circuit-switched telephony environment, those skilled in the artwill recognize that the present invention also can be implemented withinthe context of a packet-switched or Internet Protocol (IP) basedtelephony environment. For example, a subscriber can initiate a callover a packet-switched network which can include appropriate processingnodes and/or interfaces for initiating SCP and/or LIDB queries.

FIG. 2 is an exemplary data entry 200 for a subscriber which typicallyis found within a LIDB as was shown in FIG. 1. Although data entrieswithin the LIDB can include significantly more information than shown,the data entry 200 can include a subscriber name 205 and a subscribernumber 210 associated with the subscriber name 205. The subscribernumber 210 corresponds to the calling number for a call. Accordingly, aquery using the subscriber number 210 as a parameter can determine theassociated subscriber name 205 for a given call. The subscriber name 205can be provided to the called party in addition to the subscriber number210.

FIG. 3 is an exemplary data entry 300 for a subscriber which can bestored within the LIDB in accordance with the inventive arrangementsdisclosed herein. The data entry 300 includes a subscriber name 305 andan associated subscriber number 310. Notably, a service descriptor hasbeen appended to the subscriber name 305. The service descriptor can bea string of one or more characters and/or symbols. The servicedescriptor can represent one or more telephony services for which thesubscriber has been registered or approved to received.

FIG. 4 is an excerpt from an exemplary mapping 400 of subscriberinformation to telephony services in accordance with the presentinvention. The mapping 400 can be located within the telephony servicenode of FIG. 1. Accordingly, when a call or call request specifying asubscriber name and/or a service descriptor is received, the telephonyservice node can match the received call request with one or moreservices corresponding to the received service descriptor.

As shown, the mapping 400 includes an entry 405 and an entry 410. Eachentry can specify a subscriber name with an appended service descriptor.In another embodiment of the present invention, only the servicedescriptor need be stored. In any case, the service descriptor can beassociated with one or more telephony services. More than one telephonyservice can be associated with each telephony service descriptor.

The service descriptors can be implemented such that each like servicedescriptor is associated with a given set of one or more telephonyservices. For example, each bit position of a given service descriptorcan correspond to a given telephony service and indicate whether thatservice is available for use. According to another aspect of the presentinvention, each service descriptor can be unique such that the set oftelephony services associated with the subscriber name also can beunique to that subscriber. Thus, service descriptor “XXX” of entry 405can be associated with telephony service 1 or a set of telephonyservices. The service descriptor “YYY” of entry 410 can be associatedwith telephony service 2, or another set of telephony services.

It should be appreciated, however, that the association of servicedescriptors, telephony services, and/or subscriber names can beperformed using any of a variety of data storage and associationmechanisms. For example, the mapping data can be specified as a table,as a linked list, or as a database.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating a method 500 of delivering atelephony service as performed by the system of FIG. 1. The method canbegin in step 505 where the LIDB can be provisioned to add or appendservice descriptors to names of one or more subscriber entries. Asnoted, this can be performed using an administrative terminal orcomputer system designated for administering or maintaining the LIDB. Instep 510, a subscriber can initiate a call using suitable customerpremise equipment, whether circuit-switched or packet-switched customerpremise equipment.

In step 515, an SCP can query the LIDB for subscriber information. Moreparticularly, the initiated call can be processed in a telephonyswitching system which can determine that a query to an SCP for furtherinformation is necessary. Accordingly, the switching system can send thequery to the SCP, which in turn can query the LIDB as indicated. The SCPcan query the LIDB by including information such as the calling numberor address within the query, such that the LIDB can retrieve subscriberinformation corresponding to the received call. The LIDB, havingidentified subscriber information for the call, including a servicedescriptor, can provide the call information to the SCP which receivesthe call information in step 520.

In step 525, the telephony service node can receive the call informationwhich can be routed from the SCP through one or more intermediateswitching points as well as switching systems as may be required. Instep 530, the telephony service node can identify the service descriptorfrom the received subscriber information. In step 535, the telephonyservice node can match the identified service descriptor from thesubscriber information with one or more telephony services. As noted,the telephony service node can store associations of service descriptorsand telephony services which can be enabled or provided to process acall associated with a particular subscriber.

In step 540, the telephony services which are associated with theidentified service descriptor can be activated or made available toprocess the call. For example, one or more application programimplementations of telephony services associated with the servicedescriptor can be executed. Accordingly, any of a variety of telephonyservices can be provided to process the call including interactive voiceresponse services, directory services, call routing, and the like.

It should be appreciated that the present invention, although describedwith reference to a particular embodiment, can be implemented in any ofa variety of different configurations. For example, one or more of theparticular functions described herein with reference to the SCP and thetelephony service node, that is subscriber data retrieval functions andthe providing of telephony services can be combined into a single morecomplex processing node.

Additionally, depending upon the particular configuration of the presentinvention, the telephony node, for example the SCP, which retrieves thesubscriber information can retrieve the subscriber name and/or servicedescriptor only, or the subscriber name, the service descriptor, as wellas additional subscriber information. Accordingly, if the subscriberdata retrieval node retrieves more information than is required, the SCPcan parse the subscriber information to determine the subscriber nameand/or service descriptor to be provided to the telephony service node.If more information than is needed by the telephony service node isreceived, for example from the SCP, the telephony service node can parsethe received subscriber information to determine the subscriber nameand/or the service descriptor.

The invention disclosed herein provides a solution for activatingtelephony services for subscribers according to a service descriptorwhich can be added to subscriber entries within a telephony data store.Accordingly, through the present invention, telephony services can beprovided to subscribers by the telephony service node without a relianceupon origination and/or termination information. Thus, telephonyservices can be provided based upon subscriber identities, therebyfacilitating personalized telephony service provisioning.

The present invention can be realized in hardware, software, or acombination of hardware and software. The present invention can berealized in a centralized fashion in one computer system, or in adistributed fashion where different elements are spread across severalinterconnected computer systems. Any kind of computer system or otherapparatus adapted for carrying out the methods described herein issuited. A typical combination of hardware and software can be a generalpurpose computer system with a computer program that, when being loadedand executed, controls the computer system such that it carries out themethods described herein.

The present invention also can be embedded in a computer programproduct, which comprises all the features enabling the implementation ofthe methods described herein, and which when loaded in a computer systemis able to carry out these methods. Computer program in the presentcontext means any expression, in any language, code or notation, of aset of instructions intended to cause a system having an informationprocessing capability to perform a particular function either directlyor after either or both of the following: a) conversion to anotherlanguage, code or notation; b) reproduction in a different materialform.

This invention can be embodied in other forms without departing from thespirit or essential attributes thereof. Accordingly, reference should bemade to the following claims, rather than to the foregoingspecification, as indicating the scope of the invention.

1. A computer-readable storage medium, having stored thereon a computerprogram having a plurality of code sections executable by a computer forcausing the computer to perform the steps of: provisioning a subscriberinformation data store by appending a service descriptor to a subscriberprofile item other than call origination point information and calltermination point information, the service descriptor representing atleast one telephony service for which the subscriber has beenregistered; at a subscriber data retrieval node, receiving a callrequest and a caller identifier from a subscriber; querying thesubscriber information data store with said caller identifier todetermine the subscriber profile item and the appended servicedescriptor; receiving the service descriptor at the subscriber dataretrieval node from the subscriber information data store; providing theservice descriptor to a telephony service node; mapping the servicedescriptor to the at least one telephony service represented by theservice descriptor; and providing the subscriber with an access to theat least one telephony service.
 2. The computer-readable storage mediumof claim 1, wherein the subscriber profile item is the name of thesubscriber.
 3. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, whereinthe call origination point information includes a calling number.
 4. Thecomputer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the calltermination point information includes a called number.
 5. Thecomputer-readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising: if thesubscriber data retrieval node retrieves information more than thesubscriber profile item and/or the service descriptor, parsing theinformation to determine the subscriber profile item and/or the servicedescriptor.
 6. A computer-readable storage medium, having stored thereona computer program having a plurality of code sections executable by acomputer for causing the computer to perform the steps of: provisioninga subscriber information data store by appending a service descriptor toa subscriber profile item other than call origination point informationand call termination point information, the service descriptorrepresenting at least one telephony service for which the subscriber hasbeen registered; within the telephony service node, receiving a servicedescriptor determined from the subscriber information data store basedon a caller identifier upon receiving a call from a subscriber; matchingthe service descriptor with the at least one telephony service availablein the telephony service node for processing the call; and providing thesubscriber with an access to the at least one telephony service.
 7. Thecomputer-readable storage medium of claim 6, wherein the subscriberprofile item is the name of the subscriber.
 8. The computer-readablestorage medium of claim 6, wherein the call origination pointinformation includes a calling number.
 9. The computer-readable storagemedium of claim 6, wherein the call termination point informationincludes a called number.